Sunday, October 6, 2013

Rider Break! Episode 16: Not From Concentrate

Rider Break! is back with another "live" first reaction, this time to the first episode of Kamen Rider Gaim! Is it a fresh new direction for the series, or did the months of waiting just amount to a crate of old fruit rotting in a run-down warehouse? Expect no clear answer to this question, plus more!

In This Episode:

• Rider Break! returns to its normal schedule of releasing once in a blue moon, but fortunately in October there will be a few more blue moons. This time, I talk over the entirety of Kamen Rider Gaim episode 1 because if there's one thing everybody loves, it's when people talk over the movie.

•Spoilers for episode 1 of Kamen Rider Gaim because duh.

• And because it's a live first impression commentary recorded at 8 in the morning, expect complete incoherence. You can make a drinking game out of how many times "really" is said in the first 5 minutes alone.

• The show's soundtrack came from the episodes via a captured stream, so there's some short pauses in the audio. This isn't a really big deal because my comments are a bit delayed anyway (i.e. I note Gaim is riding a horse like 5 seconds after we see him on the horse) but if you're actually attempting to watch this alongside video, it probably won't align perfectly. Ultimately I think the podcast just works on its own, watched with the original episode still fresh in one's mind, though if it does actually go along with the video at all, I'd be happy to know!

Note in advance: I paused for the first two commercial breaks, and didn't say anything really interesting after the belt commercial at the end, hence going right into the wrap-up.• As mentioned, Wizard 52/53 & the long-delayed Q & A episode will be next. This isn't really a note, but it's worth repeating as a reminder to myself!

Timestamps:

00:00 - Watch those speakers!05:30 - The actual commentary starts around here.
33:30-something - I said it would be short!• Thanks for listening!Get The Episode

Well I can't catch everything the first time through! XP To be honest, I don't really associate that phrase with Kuuga specifically, so it wasn't until reading about it later that I picked up on that even being a thing.

Fun fact: I never noticed they used the Blade Card throwing sound effect until you mentioned it.

Episode 1 of Gaim did gave me a similar feel to the Kuuga-Kabuto era, not so much because of the story or any particular scene but because of the way they built Gaim´s world; they created a real-like city and then they inserted the Riders an Inves into it, which is quite different from the Den-O onwards era where it seems that the setting for the show exists AROUND the Riders and monsters.

As a side note, i found this first episode much more enjoyable during a second viewing, there were a lot of details i missed the first time around (the whole 'Beat Riders' thing became clearer') and following some advice i watched episodes 1 and 2 in a row, which actually makes them a lot better since they create a more solid origin story for Gaim.

PS: You should totally make one of these things for All Riders vs Dai-Shocker, its one of my favorite Rider movies and it would be really interesting to have your "commentary track".